Airbrushing is a constant fixture in the headlines due to its saturation on our billboards and in our glossy magazines. But with a proliferation of 'face-fixing' apps now available to buy, it's now coming to a smartphone near you.

To fix or not to fix, that is the question. 

Is it really any more vain to give your photos a bit of a re-touch before sticking them on Facebook than it is to alter the contrast and throw on a skin-flattering filter on Instagram, or indeed to enhance your real image with makeup? Of course, doctoring yourself beyond recognition online will only come back to bite you when it becomes quite apparent that you do not in fact appear ten years younger than you actually are. But a bit of digital concealer is surely no worse than the kind you’d get on the beauty counter. In the real world, people have been enhancing their appearance since the Ancient Egyptians got all sultry-eyed with charcoal, so with the abundance of pictures being posted online, the odd bit of Photoshopping here and there is simply a case of adapting old habits for a digital age. In my book, it’s far vainer to be a perpetual de-tagger, or to refuse to have your picture taken at all, as though anyone other than you cares that much about your image, but if you wouldn’t go out without make-up, then why should you be published without filters?  

 

No

Alannah Sparks

Something strange and underhanded is afoot. If you’ve logged on to LinkedIn or Facebook in the past few weeks (okay, the past few minutes), you may have noticed that profile pictures are a little more bronzed, smiles are a little whiter, skin a little more taught.  And this from people that you know to spend the majority of their waking hours sludged in front of a computer screen drinking lattes. Are they secretly going jogging on their lunch hour? Nope, they’ve downloaded Facetune, the app that makes everyone look just a little bit more fabulous.

The world has gone mad. Giving your holiday snaps a sepia glow on Instagram is one thing, but slimming down your legs, removing blemishes or thickening your hair is borderline psychotic behaviour. Who are you fooling? Answer: yourself. If you can tear yourself away from your laptop or smartphone long enough to drag yourself to the mirror, the only thing that awaits you is brutal disappointment. And the same goes for the future employer/date/friend you’re trying to impress. They thought they were getting Cindy Crawford, and they get.. well… you. Which suddenly isn't good enough once you’ve created your avatar. Get a grip, people. Truth is stranger than fiction, and that’s how we like it.